In State v. O'Brien, 200 N.J. 520 (2009), the Supreme Court asked both the Civil Practice Committee and the Criminal Practice Committee to consider developing standards to guide judges in exercising their discretion to provide written instructions to the jury. In the previous rules cycle the Court adopted rule amendments relating to Civil cases as recommended by the Civil Practice Committee. This notice is to announce that the Court has approved rule amendments on this subject for Criminal cases.
Effective January 1, 2014, the Court has approved revisions to Rule 1:8-7 and Rule 1:8-8, as proposed by the Criminal Practice Committee, to require that written jury instructions be provided to the jury in all criminal cases, unless preparation of the instructions would cause an undue delay in the trial. The July 9, 2013 order adopting these amendments will be separately published. The later effective date of January 1, 2014 will afford judges and practitioners an opportunity to become familiar with this procedure before it becomes mandatory.
